Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/111

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LETTERS FROM INDIA.
99

my tame lemur should go in the boat with us, when we have not room for half the servants he meant should sleep on the deck.

That angel Gazelle has certainly contrived to grow up into that species of deer generally denominated ‘hog;’ he is therefore not eminently graceful, but his manners and disposition are quite beyond praise. The lemur is very tame and frightens me with its black human hands. —— bought it for me the other day, cheerfully observing, ‘It’s just the sort of animal you will like in your tent; you may let it loose there, and it will scramble like a cat and a monkey together.’ Such a combination of horrors! And it expects to be petted and played with all day long; if it is neglected, it begins to moan. I flatter myself that I have secured a valuable and trustworthy attendant for him and Gazelle. Ariff the other day brought him to make his salaam, and, after giving him a long exhortation in Hindustanee, translated it for my benefit in this manner: ‘I tell him, Ladyship, that he come every morning for two hours and make acquaintance with Gazelle, then he go to Barrackpore and make acquaintance with monkey, and that he must